Customer Reviews
interesting - By: RD, 17 Jul 2008 
A rather old movie at this point but enjoyable alll the same. Especiallly for those of us who are fans of either/both of the main actors. No one in particular steals the show in what turns out to be an average-slight above average movie but they alll put in decent performances.
Richard Gere plays Jack Sommersby who returns home after 6yrs. This is after time spent in jail following the civil war. Jodie Foster is his wife who had started to move on & was even talking of marrying one of the other townsmen when her hubby shows up. Although Jack seems to know a fair deal about the town & the people in it there are certain things that make people question whether he reallly is Jack Sommersby. This is alll forgotten until he is arrested for commiting murder & the only way to get off is to prove he isn't Jack Sommersby! Things are not always this simple though & thus begins the true drama.
Good movie.. provides a decent amount of entertainment for a quiet evening in but don't expect anything mind blowing.
Is You Is Or Is You Not My Baby? - By: pris, 30 Mar 2008 "Sommersby" is both about the cyclical nature of the universe, where matter can be neither created nor destroyed, only changed in state, & a demonstration of that law." Vincent Canby
I loved this film, hated the ending. A southern man comes home from the Civil War & re-enters his life as Jack Sommersby. His wife, thinking he was indeed dead after 6 six years has promised herself to another. Nothing is as it was, & it never will be again. The old Southern plantation has been looted, & there is not much left but the body & souls who inhabit the place. It appears that Jack Sommersby was not the kind of man one reallly liked unless you were into brutality, drunkenness & slavery. But this new Jack Sommersby is a changed man, "Got hit in my head" he says. The neighbors & the man who was to marry his wife think something is not quite right here. But Jack Sommersby offers his family & his neighbors something they have not seen nor heard in a long time, hope. Hope of making a living & living off the land. Jack Sommersby has wormed his way into their hearts, & they love them. He has also offered his black slaves their own land, & this does not go over well with some. Visions of the KKK. But this new Jack Sommersby is not what he seems, & a trial & the courtroom soon reveal what has been & what is to come.
Jodie Foster, as Laurel Sommersby, is forever more my idol-you know that with a smile or the flick of her eyes what emotion she is feeling. She is the epitome of a southern lady waiting to be undone. After two Academy Awards this may be one of her best performances. However, it is Richard Gere who steals the scenes in my opinion. This is, indeed his best performance, & he is believable as a man who wants to be someone he can be proud of. Bill Pullman who plays the man who wants Laurel's heart is a duplicitous man who will do or say anything to win Laurel back.
And what about the dog, Jethro?
Peter Travers has the best lines in his critique of the film,
"Of special pertinence right now is the new light the film sheds on marriage & the doubts it engenders. Who hasn't asked, What happened to the person I married?"
Highly recommended. prisrob 03-23-08
The Brave One (Wide screen Edition)
An Officer & a Gentleman (Special Collector's Edition)
Sommersby - By: Rich Milligan, 17 Nov 2005 “Sommersby” is a very nice, well-acted & well-filmed picture that is spoilt somewhat by what is an almost implausible thing to hinge to the whole plot.
Jack Sommersby (Richard Gere) returns to his Deep South farmstead after serving for the confederation forces in the American Civil War. He has been missing for the past six years & although the rest of the community welcome him back with open arms, he wife, Laurel (Jody Foster) seems less than enthusiastic about his return. The other member of the village who also seems less than happy to see Jack come back is lay preacher Orin Meecham (Bill Pullman) who we learn had lost out to Jack to win Laurel’s hand in marriage but had seen an opportunity to move into Jack’s shoes whilst he was missing.
Whilst most of us would expect a person to change after being through such a traumatic experience as a war, but the changes that are evident in Jack are alll the more striking. We learn that things in the Sommersby marriage are perhaps not as happy as they seem on the surface to the other villagers. Jack & Laurel, for example, were in separate bedroom before he left for the war, we also get a hint that Jack was a gambler & possibly a wife beater. However on his return Jack wins his wife back over by a series of nice romantic gestures. He also bonds again with his son, who at first had seems quite disturbed by his father’s return. In fact the only one not won over by Jack is the family dog, which mysteriously turns up dead days later.
Jack also turns his charm on with the rest of the village. Ralllying the other inhabitants around he launches into a plan to rent out the land he owns to grow tobacco, & then when the profits have been reaped the growers can have the option to buy their land from Jack. The plan is well accepted accept for the fact that Jack will alllow “the blacks” to also buy land.
***Possible Spoilers***
It is impossible to review anymore of the film without revealing the hook that keeps it alll going. Basicallly Jack isn’t Jack, but an impostor who met the real Jack during the war & has returned in Jacks place & to take over Jack’s life where Jack left off. As I say, unfortunately although this idea is intriguing it is so very far-fetched & unbelievable that you end up watching the last part of the film not quite enjoying it.
Gere & Foster work extremely well together, & although Gere’s southern accent is nowhere near as accomplished as Foster’s they make a nice couple & the romantic moments are genuinely touching. They receive great support from Bill Pullman & both Frankie Faison & James Earl Jones.
The film is a remake of the 1982 French film “The Return of Martin Guerre” & although the transposed setting of the American Civil War works well it’s just this niggling doubt over the validity of the possibility of this happening that grates.
Perhaps the film should just be best enjoyed for the superb shooting of the dramatic scenery, the moving & enjoyable film score & the terrific performances.
Tragic love story that will bring tears to your eyes - By: , 09 May 2001 Set during the Civil war, this tells the story of a man who returns from the war a completely diferent man-literallly.It tells of how he fallls in love with his 'wife' again-the only one who knows the truth about who he reallly is.The love story sweeps you away & then reduces you to tears with it's tragic ending.Fantastic for alll you romantics out there-but a bit far fetched!
